September 11

Today is September 11. Nine years ago, a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States happened. As a result, the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City were hit by the hijacked two commercial passenger jet airliners. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, which locates in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane had been redirected to Washington, D.C. by the hijackers, but finally crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after the failure of retaking control of the plane by some of its passengers and flight crew from the hijackers. There were no survivors from any of the flights. Some people working in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were killed by the crash of flights. Hundreds of emergency workers died as they attempted to rescue people and fight fires. The death toll of the attacks was 2,997, including the 19 hijackers and 1 secondary death.1

When a friend of mine told me the attack, AI was studying in graduate school in China. I was shocked when I watched the scene on the Internet. Five years later, I had an opportunity to visit Ground Zero. I cannot tell my feeling exactly in front of it.

Obviously, it has changed the world already. The War on Terror in Afghanistan has been launched for almost 9 years. Osama bin Laden is still at large, while hundreds of U.S. soldiers have been killed. The project of building mosque near Ground Zero and the Quran-burning reflect the relationship between Muslims and other American. President Obama is trying to ease the hate of American on Muslim by separating al-Qaeda from other Muslims. Does it work for American?